1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a sports boot comprising a sole, an upper mounted on the sole, a rigid reinforcement reinforcing the upper in the heel area, and a rigid collar encircling the ankle, and journalled on the reinforcement about a substantially transverse journal axis with respect to the longitudinal axis of the boot.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
A boot of the above-mentioned type is described in French application FR 89.11936, commonly assigned with the present application. The journalled collar has the advantage, by virtue of being made of a rigid material, of increasing the lateral rigidity of the upper, and thus of maintaining the tibia in a transverse direction, and also enabling the leg to rotate about a transverse axis with respect to the longitudinal axis of the boot. This boot is thus advantageous for hiking or, in the case of a cross-country ski boots, during skiing, and especially in a sliding motion.
However, such boots have a transverse rigidity that do not enable the boots to adapted be to the morphology of the user. This is especially disadvantageous for users with clubbed or cleft feet. In the case of these users, the axis of the tibia is inclined either towards the inside of the foot or towards the outside of the foot, with respect to the median vertical plane of the foot. When they use a boot with a rigid collar of the type described above, they close the collar around their tibia by virtue of a closing system of the collar. Consequently, the axis of the tibia coincides with the axis of the rigid collar. In the case of club or cleft-footed users, the sole of the boot, and consequently, the sole of the ski in the case of cross-country skiing, which are perpendicular to the axis of the collar, are no longer parallel to the ground, and thus, no longer in contact with it, but are inclined with respect to it. Moreover, the sole of the foot of the user is not in uniform contact with the internal sole of the boot. The distribution of pressure on the sole of the foot is thus not natural, and this impairs the comfort of the user, as well as the control of the boot or the ski.